FATE OF ACTINOMYCETES IN THE INTESTINAL-TRACT OF SOIL INVERTEBRATES FED ON STREPTOMYCETE SPORES

Luminescence microscopy was employed to study the dynamics of the leng th of streptomycete mycelium and the numbers of prokaryotic cells in t he food substrate, gut, and excrement of the earthworm Eisenia foetida and the millipede Pachyiulus flavipes fed with streptomycete spores. Partial digestion of spores was shown to occur in the gut Of earthworm s and millipedes. Other spores were preserved, germinated, and accumul ated in the excrement of earthworms and the hindgut of millipedes. In the gut of earthworms and millipedes fed on the spores of Streptomyces olivocinereus, an orange glow emitted by the hyphae was revealed, whi ch was caused by the presence of the antibiotic heliomycin. This is in dicative of the active development of the mycelium form of actinomycet es in the gut. When fed with streptomycete spores, earthworms and mill ipedes displayed certain preferences: the vermicompost earthworm E. fo etida more actively consumed the spores of Streptomyces caeruleus, whe reas the millipede P. flavipes preferred the spores of S. olivocinereu s and S. californicus.